Storage is precious resource on computing systems. Storage devices of computing systems can be repositories not only for application files and data but also critical operating system files, and critical high-value data, including sensitive personal data, among other examples. Root kits, viruses, and other malware attacks have been known to target storage devices such as the boot loader (e.g. a master boot record (MBR)), file systems, disk regions, etc. of a storage device. Examples of such malicious programs include TDL4, Trojan.Mebroot, Popureb.E, Max++, among others. Such malicious programs can manipulate system storage to create room for their persistence, create private file systems or storage partitions, commit data theft, data leak, and data loss, among other examples.
Like reference numbers and designations in the various drawings indicate like elements.